


Pierogies

by InsideMyBrain



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: ASOUE Fic4Fic 2017, Cooking, Crying, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Food, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, it gets mad sappy at the end i apologize, one big happy family if you don't, onesided viodora and klaus/duncan if you squint, they deserve a happy ending ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsideMyBrain/pseuds/InsideMyBrain
Summary: The Baudelaires receive three unexpected visitors one hot summer night.





	Pierogies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SioDymph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SioDymph/gifts).



If, before the fire, someone had asked Violet where she thought she'd be at seventeen, she likely would have said planning to go to university. She certainly never would have thought she'd be living in a tiny apartment, alone with her siblings and another infant. Yet here she was, seventeen years old in a situation that seemed more appropriate for a thirty-year-old.

Sometimes, Violet found herself wishing they'd stayed on the island. It may have been boring, but there they had plenty of food and shelter and no need to work nine hour workdays.  _Maybe Beatrice's sinking was a warning,_  she thought darkly one morning, after being unable to sleep the night before. Exhaustion tended to bring out her fanciful side.

But even through her fatigue and annoyance, she knew they couldn't have stayed on the island. They weren't safe from the world's treachery anywhere, so there was no point in trying to hide from it. They had to bravely face it. 

However, bravely facing the treachery of the world was easier said than done, especially when that treachery was an inordinate number of bills. On nights like these, when the lack of air conditioning in the apartment really got to her, Violet became hot under the collar as well as hot everywhere else.

Violet sighed, shutting her book with a loud slam. Klaus jumped. It was too hot for her to concentrate.

"What's Sunny doing?" she snapped, realizing she could hear her sister making noise in the kitchen. Though she was barely four years old, her culinary prowess was incredible. "That noise is so aggravating."

Klaus, sitting across the room, fixed her with a withering stare. "She's making  _you_  dinner before she goes to bed, because she knows how you get after work."

Violet dropped her gaze. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm just–"

"Tired," Klaus finished for her. "I know." He smiled ruefully at his older sister until she smiled back. 

"What is she even making?" Violet asked. "We haven't much." 

Klaus simply shrugged in response, so Violet walked into the kitchen to see. As she entered, Sunny was placing a towel overtop of a bowl.

“Hi!” Sunny said, wiping her hands on the apron she was wearing. Klaus had made it for her back on the island, out of some old robes. It was once white, but had faded to a greyish brown with different coloured streaks from food spillages. 

“Hey.” Violet kissed her sister on the top of her head. “What are you making?” 

Sunny pointed to the cookbook open on the counter in front of her. As soon as they'd gotten library cards for this town, Sunny had checked it out. “Pierogies!” she said proudly. 

Violet frowned at the picture accompanying the directions. “It looks rather difficult,” she commented.

“I've made harder with less,” said Sunny, stepping down from the stool she was using to reach the counter. Violet nodded, watching Sunny retrieve a bag of potatoes and begin to count some out. 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Violet asked. 

Sunny shook her head, pulling a knife out of a drawer. “Relax,” she said simply. “You work too much.”

Violet kissed her sister again, mumbling, “I love you,” into her hair. She then retreated to the living room to continue reading. However, she hadn't even sat down when the doorbell rang. She groaned. 

“I can get it,” Klaus offered, but Violet held up a hand.

“I'm already standing, it's fine,” she reassured him. She walked to the door and pulled it open, expecting a Jehovah's witness or maybe the landlord. Instead, she was met with the weary faces of the Quagmire triplets. 

For a moment, Violet forgot how to breathe.  

Then, she croaked out, “you're alive and okay,” and flung herself into Isadora's arms. Isadora's hair was greasy and her skin was clammy, but Violet barely noticed as she hugged her friend. Her head buried in Isadora's neck and tears dripping from her eyes, she heard Klaus gasp and call the triplets’ names. He ran over to embrace them as well, and soon the five of them were sobbing and hugging each other. 

“Come in!” said Violet, once she'd stopping crying. She sniffled, and stepped back to allow the triplets to enter the apartment. “What happened after the hotel fire? Kit told us you'd been taken by the Great Unknown!” 

“And how did you find us?” Klaus asked, shutting the door behind them. 

“Research,” Duncan responded, choosing to ignore Violet's question. He smiled at Klaus. “A newspaper reported finding a small sunken boat near this town, and its description matched your boat. After that, we combed through the phone book and found you.”

Violet knitted her eyebrows together in confusion. “How did you know what our boat looked like?”

“We found these books by a man named– who's that?” Duncan cut himself off to point at Beatrice, who'd evidently been woken by their reunion. She was standing in the hallway, blinking blearily and bemusedly.

“Who are you?” Beatrice asked in return, making the five of them laugh. She took a few steps closer, and Violet picked her up. 

“These are our friends: Duncan, Isadora, and Quigley,” Violet introduced them. 

“Hi,” said Isadora quietly, and Quigley waved. 

“And this is Beatrice, Kit's daughter,” she told the Quagmires. 

“Kit is...?” asked Quigley.

“Dead,” said Klaus. 

Quigley nodded and looked down. “I'm sorry.”

Violet looked at Beatrice, and Beatrice looked back at her with those eyes that were a little too shiny sometimes, and sighed. “Me too,” she said quietly. 

“Are you hungry?” Klaus said, changing the subject.

“Starving,” Isadora replied gratefully. 

“Sunny's just making some dinner,” he said, leading them towards the kitchen. 

“This late?” Duncan asked.

“I just got back from work,” Violet explained. 

They entered the kitchen to see Sunny watching a boiling pot of potatoes. She jumped up from her stool upon seeing the Quagmires, and rushed over to hug them. “It's so good to see you,” she said joyfully.

“It's good to see you too, Sunny,” said Quigley. 

“You've grown so much,” remarked Duncan, smiling fondly. Sunny smiled back, her sharp teeth glinting in the dimly-lit kitchen. 

“Please sit,” Violet told their friends, after they'd all finished greeting Sunny, and the Quagmires obliged. 

“I can't express how wonderful it is to be here with you,” Duncan said, tucking his legs beneath him. “We've had such a rough time of it lately, but now,” he sighed happily, “our miserable luck seems to be finally over.”

“I'm so glad you're here, too,” said Klaus.

Violet sat between Beatrice and Quigley. “What exactly happened to you three after the hotel fire?” she asked again. “We feared you died.” 

“We nearly did,” Quigley told her. “The mysterious shadow in the ocean turned out to be some kind of horrific beast. We barely escaped its jaws.”

“Like the Loch Ness monster?” Violet asked.

“Sort of,” replied Isadora. “Only a thousand times more terrifying.”

“The Loch Ness monster is just a myth, though,” Klaus said. 

“This was no myth,” Duncan said. 

Klaus hesitated, then asked, “do you know what happened to anyone else who was there? Do you know if Fiona...” He didn't finish his sentence.

Isadora shook her head. “No. We were so focused on saving ourselves and each other, I don't know what happened to her. I'm sorry.”

Klaus nodded. “It's all right.” He got up and walked over to where Sunny was cooking. “Do you need any help with that?” he asked.

“Yes, actually,” Sunny said. She handed him a fork. “Mash the potatoes with some butter, sour cream, and chopped onions.”

Klaus smiled. “Yes, chef!” he said. Sunny giggled.

“So after you escaped the beast, what did you do?” Violet asked the triplets. 

“We found Olaf's submarine,” Isadora said with a little laugh. “It was broken, so he'd just abandoned it in the middle of the sea. We took refuge there for a while until we figured out what to do next.” 

“We eventually got it working,” Quigley added. “Duncan did loads of research in the sub's library, and we slowly fixed it.” He smiled at Violet. “I'm sure you could have fixed it much quicker, though.”

Violet smiled back.

Isadora cleared her throat. “Once we got it moving, we went back to the City. We thought we'd go to Mulctuary Money Management and see if the person in charge of our affairs could put us in school, or foster care, or something.” She sighed. “They couldn't.”

“Let me guess,” Violet said, “Mr. Poe was utterly useless.” 

“Of course he was,” said Duncan ruefully. “He kept saying that since we were presumed dead, we'd been deleted from the bank's system. Even though we were  _very much alive,_  he insisted it was out of his hands.”

“What about the sapphires?” Violet asked, confused. 

“Scattered to the winds,” Quigley said unhappily. Violet's mouth dropped open. 

“More like scattered to the CEO's pockets,” Isadora muttered bitterly.

“That is so incredibly unfair,” said Violet. “I'm so sorry.” In the back of her mind, a nasty voice whispered,  _what about your inheritance?_  but Violet pointedly ignored it.

“Me too,” whispered Duncan. 

“So after that, we went back to the submarine,” Quigley continued the story. “We decided to try to find you, so we tried to contact some volunteers through Volunteer Factual Dispatches. Most people were unresponsive, however.” He frowned.

“I think many of them died,” Duncan said. “VFD seems to have fallen apart.”

“Yes, so we just used the City's library to research your whereabouts, which was quite tedious,” Quigley said.

“We did find you though,” said Isadora brightly. “After that it was fairly easy. We snuck on to a train to bring us to this town, and now here we are.”

“You certainly have been through a lot,” said Violet. “I'm really happy you're here.”

Klaus rejoined them at the table then, sitting between Duncan and Isadora. “Pierogies will be ready soon,” he announced.

“It smells so good,” remarked Quigley. The pan sizzled in the background, accentuating the word  _good_.

“Let's set the table,” Violet suggested, standing up. She began to fetch plates and cutlery, and Klaus joined her.

“Can we help?” asked Isadora.

“Just relax,” Violet told her. She and Klaus laid out plates and cutlery, and filled up glasses of water for each person. They were just finishing when Sunny brought a steaming bowl of pierogies to the table. 

“Bon appètit!” she cried. She took a seat between Beatrice and Isadora. 

They divided up the pierogies fairly, and dug in.

“These are delicious, Sunny!” Duncan complimented her. 

“I agree,” said Isadora. 

“Thank you,” Sunny said modestly. 

“Yum!” said Beatrice. They giggled. Beatrice ate another pierogie, then turned to Isadora pensively. “What was it like,” she said, “living in a submarine?”

Isadora beamed. “It was unusual,” she told Beatrice. “It was all shiny, silvery metal and twisty corridors and small spaces. The view from the portholes was lovely though — we saw so many interesting types of fish!”

“The library was my dream library,” Duncan chimed in. “It was files upon files of Volunteer Factual Dispatches and newspaper articles, and tall bookshelves with all my favourite books.” 

“I loves studying the maps,” said Quigley. “The tidal charts were fascinating.”

Violet smiled fondly as her friends began to recount memories of living in the submarine. Her gaze lingered on Isadora as she spoke, her face animated and hands gesturing wildly. The table roared with laughter and Violet blinked, realizing she'd missed a joke. 

Glancing at the clock, she saw just how late it was, and turned to Beatrice with what she hoped was a maternal frown. 

“It's way past your bedtime, Bea,” she reprimanded her.

“Don't make me go to bed!” Beatrice pouted. “I'm having such a good time.”

“I'm afraid that's exactly what I'm going to do,” said Violet with a chuckle. She stood up. “Say goodnight to everyone.”

“Will I be able to see your friends again?” she asked, hopping off her chair. 

“Of course,” Violet assured her with a gentle smile. 

“Alright,” said Beatrice. “Goodnight, then!”

The rest of them bid her goodnight, and she and Violet left the room. Violet tucked her in, kissed her on the forehead, and returned to the kitchen. 

“You know, we've lived in almost all the elements,” Isadora was saying when Violet re-entered the room.

“What?” Duncan asked, as Violet sat back down. 

“Air, water, earth, and fire,” Isadora expounded. “We've lived in our mansion, in earth, on the hot air balloon, air, and now the submarine, which is water.”

“How would we live in fire, though?” Quigley laughed. “We'd have to live in a volcano.”

“Or here,” said Violet. The words slipped out of her mouth before she could think of it was a good time to say them. Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. “This apartment is always so hot it might as well be on fire.”

“Do you really mean it?” Isadora asked quietly. 

There was an infitesimal moment of hesitation, then Violet said, “of course.” She reached across the table and took Isadora's hand, smiling at the triplets. “You're invited to stay here as long as you'd like,” she told them. 

Duncan smiled so wide it looked painful, and Isadora blinked rapidly. “Thank you,” Quigley said simply, his face glowing. Violet brushed away a few tears of her own. 

They sat in silence for a few moments, smiling at each other and giggling out of sheer relief and happiness. Then Klaus said, “come here,” and held his arms open. They all piled in for a group hug for the second time that evening, laughing giddily.

It was all bodies squished together, hair in each other's faces and arms at awkward angles, but no one minded. There was such a strong feeling of love and comfort that Violet could almost see it, hanging above them in the air like a bright golden haze. Duncan whispered something in Klaus' ear and he giggled, his warm breath falling on his older sister's neck. Quigley kissed Violet on the cheek and she blushed, ducking her head. Isadora's forehead touched Violet's, and as they stared into each other's eyes, Violet felt more tears welling in her own. This was home.

“We should probably do the dishes,” Sunny said, and they all cracked up. They broke apart, but that feeling of love and comfort stayed, strong as ever.

The five of them did the dishes together, working efficiently and chatting about anything and everything. When they were done, they went to bed, Sunny going to her room she shared with Beatrice and the Quagmires following Violet and Klaus into the room they shared. The beds were too small to accommodate more than one person each, so they took the mattresses and bedsheets off and all slept on the floor together. Though they said goodnight as soon as the lights were off, whispering continued well into the night.


End file.
